The technical field of the invention is, more precisely, the single- or multi-disk brakes in carbon-carbon used for braking and/or stopping, specifically but non-restrictively, the rotation of rotary members forming part of land vehicles.
In such technical fields as cited above, it is usual to use carbon-carbon type brakes, comprising at least one rotor disk driven by the rotary part and cooperating therewith, either one stator disk, or small friction plates carried by the fixed environment of the rotary part.
Depending on the type of energy to be controlled, the rotor disk can be produced in carbon-carbon and be equipped with ventilation means permitting the control of the operating temperature.
Accordingly, the disk generally has to be very thick, with channels or conduits of substantially radial orientation formed in its thickness. Such channels allow a centrifugal circulation of air which constitutes a heat-exchanging vehicle controlling the operating temperature. The nominal thickness of such a disk also allows for the necessity of transmitting the braking torque, hence the need for producing carbon-carbon rotor disks of considerable thickness.
Due to the foregoing requirements, the brakes of the aforesaid type are expensive to produce and to use, all the more so as they require to be changed when the thicknesses of the side faces have suffered such a degree of wear that they are no longer capable of transmitting the driving torque.
Such high costs of production and use considerably restrict the application of these brakes, despite the advantages presented by their braking characteristics.